Binding and demoralizing, shame alienates us from both God and man. But where do we as believers begin to unravel our shame? There must be a Christian answer to it, for God would not abandon His beloved at their profoundest emotional ebb.
The Problem of Shame
As the sons and daughters of our first father Adam and our first mother Eve, each of us feels shame because of the first sin. We all fell in Adam’s garden rebellion: his sin was our sin, since he was our root and head (Rom. 5:12–18; 1 Cor. 15:21–22). Guilty under the wrath of …
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Begun in an instant, the normal Christian life is a journey of sanctification in which God’s grace conforms us more and more to the image of His beloved Son. Making sense of this voyage and our sanctification in it, however, requires the spectacles of Holy Scripture. As we examine the Word of God, the first startling fact we see is that our journey of sanctification begins when God pins on us a most surprising nametag. In Colossians 3:12, the apostle Paul identifies the Colossian church as “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.” This same label — “saints,” literally, “holy ones” …
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God takes sexual sin seriously. So must we.
The depth of His resolve on this issue can only be plumbed on Calvary. In the agony of His Son, the full measure of His devotion to opposing our perversions becomes clear. He is serious, deadly serious, about how we live and love together.
But why? Why should it matter so much to Him and, therefore, to the Christian and the church?
The nature of God’s resolve on this very personal issue is grounded not so much in our behavior, not in our doing right or wrong. Rather, His determination is fundamentally …
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